BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

Astex discontinues amuvatinib development

September 21, 2012 10:58 PM UTC

Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTX) discontinued development of amuvatinib after data from 21 evaluable small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients in stage one of the Phase II ESCAPE trial showed that the product missed the pre-specified stage one primary response rate endpoint. Specifically, the endpoint required excluding the statistical probability with 90% confidence that amuvatinib had less than a 10% response rate. Amuvatinib led to two partial responses in stage one of the trial for a response rate of 9.5%. The open-label, two-stage trial enrolled patients who did not respond to or relapsed after standard treatment to receive thrice-daily 300 mg oral amuvatinib plus standard of care consisting of platinum and etoposide chemotherapy. Astex was off $0.27 to $3.05 on Friday. ...